Woven Skull bring another record of their trademark folk-drone glory into the world. Lair Of The Glowing Bantling is a set of tracks right up their with the group's previous work. This release has a more live feel, rolling through a semi-lo-fi style of recording to reach this idiosyncratic sound. On Penske Records.

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The first side of this folk freak storm sees the Woven Skull crew offer a prologue of oscillating guitar strums, plus marching percussion working on a couple of levels; the forceful kick drum bobs along like a force of nature while a tambourine shakes to suggest the human imprint on the record. It goes and goes, the band ambling towards nothing in particular and bringing about a climax through sheer persistence. It has the rock drone persuasions of Natural Snow Buildings, eventually melting into a momentary wash of ambience before the band come back in with psychedelically toned guitar playing exhibitionist riffs.

Woven Skull keep things steady and seem to be more about readying the battle stations than launching them; the pieces on ‘Lair Of The Glowing Bantling’ see guitars mingle and wind into each other, but they rarely get ahead of themselves — rather, the build-ups are exponential, climbed into slowly. “Sea Graves” sees the band use noisy, dissolving percussion and spectral effects for a turgid but not overwhelming drone stomp.

On the gleeful acoustic jamming of “Blind Willy”, the band recall the ramshackle anthems of Exuma and the spirited improv of Six Organs of Admittance, suggesting that without furious discipline they can make very beautiful sounds. It’s within them to make pretty music, but for the most part ‘Lair Of The Glowing Bantling’ sounds like it’s shaking itself from nightmare to existence.

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